Rivera’s late corner wins match

ALGONQUIN – Jacobs defender Margaret Rivera took a few corner kicks throughout the match against visiting Dundee-Crown with no success. But her final one was different.

The wind, which had been gusting throughout the match, picked up late and made for a perfect situation for Rivera as she lined up her kick in the waning seconds with the score tied.

“The way the wind was, once it went off my foot, it was like, ‘Oh, that has potential to go in,’ ” Rivera said, “because there was another corner that I took that started to go in but it didn’t go, and I thought that the wind could help me on this one.”

She got the help she needed as Rivera’s wind-aided corner kick curved around Chargers goalkeeper Isabel Miranda and settled in the net just inside the back post with 46.7 seconds left to seal the 2-1
victory.

“I tried to put it as close to the back post as possible because the goalie started so far up at the front post,” Rivera said. “The best angle was to put it on the back post for my players to tap it in, but it went in by itself.”

The wind was blowing hard toward the north goal and the Chargers (5-13 overall, 1-2 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division) started with the wind at their backs after winning the opening coin toss and electing to use the benefit first.

It proved to be helpful early as Ashley Raby found the back of the net to put D-C up 1-0. The Chargers had a few other good chances but could only muster the one goal as Jacobs goalkeeper Liz Foster made 10 saves.

The score didn’t change heading into halftime and it was Jacobs’ turn with the wind down one goal, but it took the Golden Eagles a while to get used to the way the ball would travel as many of their would-be chances sailed over the net.

“The wind changes the game completely, even though we don’t always want to admit it,” Jacobs coach Anthony Cappello said. “You’re used to hitting the ball firm going into the wind and now you have to take something off and adjust going the other way.”

Jacobs (6-8-1, 2-2 FVC Valley) finally found a rhythm late in the game but it seemed as though it wouldn’t be enough as the game looked primed for overtime before the Chargers allowed a late corner kick that proved to be the key play.

“We talk about not giving up late corners,” Chargers coach Sebastian Falinski said. “But I told the girls that even though the scoreboard doesn’t show it, I thought we won that game. I thought they played really hard and deserved to win.”

The shot-on-goal stat heavily favored the Chargers as they led in that category, 11-4, but it just wasn’t enough .

“I thought we had three great chances going against the wind to put the game away, but unfortunately we hit crossbar twice and it just wasn’t our night on that end,” Falinski said.